Education + Tech

Education & Tech, was created to build hope that education based on social technologies, can transform the new century, and enable abundance not only spiritually but economically. Milton Ramirez, Ed.D. - @tonnet is the founder & editor. He is a teacher, tech blogger, writes on education, and hails this blog from Union, NJ. For further questions, tips or concerns please e-mail him to:miltonramirez [at] educationandtech [dot] com

Teacher + Scholar

If you are a regular to Blog Education & Tech, you shall remember that I am a blogger and I'd written a post about education almost everyday since 2003. Education & Tech provides you with education news, expert tech advice, classroom management ideas, and social media tools for educators, administrators, parents and k-12 students.

The need for cyber security is an unfortunate
reality in today’s world, where hackers and other malicious folk can readily
hijack unprotected websites and wreak havoc with the owner’s reputation and
personal data. You know you need security, but you’re not exactly an expert and
might be feeling a little overwhelmed about where to even begin. Here are some
useful yet simple tips for ensuring your own web security is as tight as it
needs to be:

Update Your Script

You’ll want to protect and update the
script your site is
built on up-to-date to ensure your site is protected from any old exploits or
backdoors. If you hired a developer you’ll want to have them teach you to do
this on your own for your particular site so that you don’t have to pay them
every time to you need an update.

Create Strong
Passwords

Passwords are unavoidable, but you’ll want to
understand how to create a strong
one to keep yours
safe. The first thing you think of is probably similar to the first thing most
people think of. Your initials, birthday, spouse, etc. are all far too easy to
guess for a hacker and considering the amount of personal info you may have on
social media, a lot of your personal data is easy to figure out. Keep your
passwords around 12 digits long, full of numbers, letters (lower upper case) and symbols that are
hard to guess but easy for you to remember.

If you have a bad memory, try making a story
out of it in your head to help with a more
challenging password.
If your password is JQ6LS8*T9! then you’re
story could be "Johnny Quest had a crew of only 6 so he got Lost in Space
and ate (8) stars (*) Til 9pm!"It doesn’t have to make sense, just keep it
something simple that you can picture in your mind all at once. Odds are you’ve
already nearly memorized the example password above. Change your password every
few months and write them down.

Better Security
Questions

Similar to the password issue, your security
questions ought to be things that you know that aren’t easily accessible via
the Internet. Avoid things like “Mother’s maiden name.” Instead choose the city
where you met your spouse, or the model of your first car. If you can create
your own questions, be creative but not so creative that you outsmart your
future self if you happen to need the answer. Write them down, secure them
nearby and change them every few months, just like your password.

Secure Networks Only

An unsecured WiFi network, meaning an open network without a password, is vulnerable to more than just unsupervised use of your Internet connection. It can allow them access to any vulnerable device on the network, including
your computer, phone, TV or any other smart device. All these devices likely
contain some amount of personal info
that could compromise your site. You’ll want to understand how to approach your
network security
and how to create a WPA key of your choosing, using the above rules to keep it
private and hard to guess.

Avoid Unfamiliar Links

The perpetrators of phishing scams (a method of
tricking someone into revealing usernames and passwords) have gotten very
skilled at impersonating seemingly trustworthy websites. If your financial
institution is contacting you out of the blue, or a website you haven’t visited
in ages suddenly needs you to amend your account info, be wary. Scammers often
use authentic logos, message templates and alter their name to fool people.

Often there are grammatical errors or other
signs of an unprofessional message, but the smoking gun is always the email
address itself. As scammers cannot actually send email via the institution
itself, they will change the display name while the actual reply address will
be a mixture of numbers and letters. If the domain name doesn’t match the
financial institution itself, it’s probably bogus.

The safest way is to navigate to the authentic
page yourself and login there, never using the links provided in the email.

Separate Recovery
Email

For most of your logins and passwords
associated with your site, you’ll need to provide a recovery email. Rather than
use your normal address that you use for everything else, create one
specifically for recovery. Make it easy to remember but hard to guess (avoid
your name or personal info) and never list it anywhere online, especially not
on your page itself. It should be an island unto itself and serve only as a
backup in case you forget your login info.

(*) Camille McClane is a writer, researcher and
marketer who enjoys creating content involving tech, business, social media,
web security and psychographics. She hopes you enjoy this article, and that it
will help you keep your site safe!